Gorse soon spends Joan Plumleigh-Bruce's cash and takes a job selling cars in Brighton - but it is not long before the implacable Donald Stimpson tracks him down and demands recompense from his employer

Now married to car dealer Harold Bennet's daughter Pamela, Gorse begins drinking heavily to alleviate the sheer tedium of domestic life - and devises an audacious insurance fraud to boost his finances. Unfortunately, the plan ends in tragedy.

Gorse deserts from the Army during World War Two and accidentally causes the death of an RAF officer - whose identity he then steals in a bid to escape detection. Finding that women are impressed by the glamour of a pilot's uniform, he sets his sight on fleecing another wealthy widow.